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From the Rabbi:
Note that there will not be an online class this Thursday.
Parshat Eikev highlights the quintessential theme of the book of Deuteronomy, the dynamic so often called "reward and punishment."
"If you keep the commandments, you'll be rewarded, if you deviate from them, you'll suffer" is on full display in this week's parsha, especially in the second paragraph of the Shema. We say it all the time, but do we experience it as true?
There are two two classical difficulties with the simple understanding of this theme in scripture. Thankfully the Rambam addresses them both.
The first is that that our real life experience doesn't exactly fit that pattern. We see the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer throughout history to this day. Who knows better than we Jews the cruelty of humanity when the wheel of fortune turns in the favor of the greedy and power-hungry? Cruel and predatory people inflict all manner of abuse upon those weaker than them just because they can. And they get away with it. Where's the swift and proper justice God promised at the end of last week's Parsha (7:10)? "And He pays His enemy to his face to destroy him. He does not delay for His enemy—to his face does He pay him."
Our Sages were well aware of this problem, and the classical solution taken by the Talmud (Eruvin 22a) is to locate divine justice in the hereafter. The Rambam explains "Paying to his face" means rewarding him for whatever good he's done here in this world so as to punish freely him in the hereafter. So too the righteous suffer now for whatever evil they've done so as to be rewarded in Olam HaBa - the "world to come."
Secondly, is rain, good health, and plenty of food really all God has to offer us in reward? If the reward of the Righteous is only in Olam HaBa, why promise us all that this worldly stuff? The idea of the hereafter as the locus of God's justice and reward doesn't really fit with the simple understanding of scripture. Or with our yearning for God. I enjoy a good meal as much as anyone, but my hopes and dreams for divine reward aren't for rain and sheep. Eternal Bliss in God's Oneness sounds more like it, right?
But the Rambam knew that, and so he told us not to think of Olam HaBa as a separate or distant reality. Even Maimonides, the great rationalist was quite clear that Olam HaBa is a reality which is accessible now. (Mishne Torah, Teshuva 8:8)
The Sages did not use the expression "the world to come" with the intention of implying that [this realm] does not exist at present or that the present realm will be destroyed and then, that realm will come into being.
The matter is not so. Rather, [the world to come] exists and is present as implied by [Psalms 31:20]: "How great is the good that You have hidden... which You have made...." It is only called the world to come because that life remains to a man after life in this world in which we exist, as souls [clothed] in bodies. This [realm of existence] is presented to all men at first.
Olam HaBa is the reality of our souls. It's here and accessible now if only you're open to it. Yes, the reward and punishment will be intact in the hereafter too. But right now, those who wish to taste of that Divine light already can. That Heavenly bliss can fill our eating, our joy in our children and grandchildren, our community celebrations and every facet of our lives. But it doesn't come from the eating. It comes from our soul. Or, we can choose to chase after those body pleasures without our souls. The Torah is telling us that it won't really work. You may have rain and sheep, but it won't be blissful and fulfilling without your neshama and withour God. As the second paragraph of the Shema tells us, our hearts become petty...and the heavens are closed to us.
We Humans are a combination of Body and Soul, Earthly mud and Divine Spirit. The Blessing is to be both at once. To have, as the Shema paragraph concludes, "like days Heaven on Earth" by bringing our souls into our bodies through love, awe and connection to Hashem in doing mitzvot. Not to float away in renunciant meditation and neglect our bodies, nor to indulge our bodies and neglect our souls. As we approach Elul let us strive as King David says in the Elul Psalm, [Psalms 27:13]: "to see the goodness of God in the land of the living."
Blessings for a Blissful, Heavenly Shabbos,
Rabbi Shlomo
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